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BNP Paribas has recruited Yuri Lin, v.p. at Lehman Brothers in Hong Kong, for a new role in Hong Kong covering derivative product sales for hedge funds. He reports to Emanuel Breiter, head of flow equity derivative sales. Breiter referred calls to Christine Chan, spokeswoman, who declined all comment.

Royal Bank of Scotland has boosted its credit derivative presence in the region, kick starting a trading desk in Singapore and making a senior hire in the form of Mark Sewell. A credit derivatives trader at UBS in Sydney, he joins in a new role as head of illiquid credit trading for Asia, and will be setting up a trading unit in the Lion City.

Robert Burns, director and head of collateralized debt obligation distribution to Europe at The Royal Bank of Scotland in London, has quit the firm. He declined comment when reached on his cell, but market buzz has connected him with a similar role at a rival firm. At RBS, he reported to Al Sinsheimer head of capital markets credit sales.

Merrill Lynch has hired Sowen Ng, executive director at Morgan Stanley, as a managing director for the Hong Kong global fx sales desk. Rig Karkhanis, managing director and head of fx and local currency trading at Merrill, said Ng is a replacement for Wu Yue, director, who recently joined Barclays Capital in a senior sales capacity (DW, 4/7). He added a few additional sales and trading hires are in the works for the newly-minted fx desk. "The region is booming—we're seeing a major increase in particular in fx and rates," said Karkhanis, adding that growth is being driven by corporate accounts and global hedge funds.

A liquid market for emerging-market collateralized debt obligation tranches is yet to materialize because tight spreads are stunting the number of deals being printed. "There is not the appetite for CDOs because compared to high-yield and crossover, spreads are too tight," said one London-based structurer. The price of protection on the CDX EM diversified, which comprises 40 equally-weighted sovereigns and corporates, is around 88 basis points, compared to 292 bps for the CDX North American High Yield index.

Australian interest-rate traders have noted a recent surge in activity, after a rate hike two weeks ago attracted greater overseas interest. "The shape of the curve is starting to steepen and opportunities are there--this is putting Australia back on the radar for offshore players," said a senior interest-rate dealer at a domestic bank. He noted volumes in the domestic swap market have picked up by one and a half times since last year on the back of potential rate rises.

The International Finance Corp. has entered a swap to receive floating rates after placing a fixed-rated bond. The U.S. dollar swap was arranged off the back of a USD1 billion, 5.125%, five-year note issue by the private-sector arm of the World Bank Group.

Private Danish bank Sydbank is looking to issue and manage a synthetic collateralized debt obligation referencing emerging-market debt. Structurers from the firm declined to comment on details of the developing structure, beyond noting it will follow in the footsteps of two emerging market transactions currently under management. These include Eirles Two, which was structured by Deutsche Bank in 2004.

Rabobank is launching a New York equity and fund derivatives group and has hired two structurers to pioneer the effort.

Bear Stearns Asset Management is planning to launch a credit derivative product company. The triple-A counterparty will sell protection on single-name asset-backed securities, corporate credit and structured credit, said Ralph Cioffi, senior managing director at BSAM who heads the effort. Launching the CDPC will generate fees for BSAM, which will manage the entity under an asset management agreement. September is the penciled-in launch date.

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